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  • Published: 15 September 2014
  • ISBN: 9780345803030
  • Imprint: Knopf US
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 448
  • RRP: $44.99

The System

The Glory and Scandal of Big-Time College Football



Both a celebration and investigation, The System is a groundbreaking, explosive, and shocking behind-the-scenes look at the excesses and excitement of big-time college football.

A Shelf Awareness Best Book of the Year 

NCAA football is big business. Every Saturday millions of people file into massive stadiums or tune in on television as "athlete-students" give everything they've got to make their team a success. Billions of dollars now flow into the game. But what is the true cost? The players have no share in the oceans of money. And once the lights go down, the glitter doesn't shine so brightly. Filled with mind-blowing details of major NCAA football scandals, with stops at Ohio State, Tennessee, Texas Tech, Missouri, BYU, LSU, Texas A&M and many more, The System explores and exposes the complex, and perhaps broken, machine that churns behind the glamour of college football. 

With a New Afterword.

  • Published: 15 September 2014
  • ISBN: 9780345803030
  • Imprint: Knopf US
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 448
  • RRP: $44.99

Praise for The System

  • "The best book on the sport written in years (and that's coming from someone who has written a couple). The System will shock fans as the saturation reporting peels back the veneer on everything from coaching politics, to sexual tension in tutoring labs, to the role of recruiting hostesses, to back-stabbing conference realignment, to super boosters, and so on. Even the hardcore fans, though, will be surprised--everyone knows this is a wild business, just not in such detail. . . . There's just no way a college football fan won't devour this book."--Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! Sports